About

Saroj Joshi, multiple award winning cookbook author & jeweler

Saroj Joshi at the Unique Book of Vegetarian Cooking book launch.

Saroj Joshi is a multiple award winning cookbook author and jeweler. She started experimenting in the kitchen at her home in Bombay, India, in the early seventies. Over the years, her international travels afforded her the opportunity to sample diverse cuisines. Raised in a strictly vegetarian household, she undertook the challenge of finding substitutions for meat and even eggs in popular dishes. She honed her skills by trial and error and eventually mastered every challenge she set her sights on.

She first ventured into the professional arena by conducting cooking classes at her Warden Road home, which resulted in exceptional success. Stories of her skill and finesse spread, garnering invitations for cooking demonstrations at various clubs and organizations.

Simultaneously her jewelry business flourished. She has held various jewelry exhibitions throughout the years. The trinkets not only meet the client's expectations but also always exceed them. She is also well known for designing jewelry for temple deities, items such as small ornaments to large scale items such as gold mukuts, (gold crowns), Padukas (jewel encrusted gold slippers), and the Vajrayadh (a gold staff with thousands of diamonds).

With over twenty years of experience, her versatility covers almost every possible culinary or ornamental need of her clients. She specializes in real diamonds and pearls set in either gold or platinum. She often makes jewelry from other precious and semi-precious stones, including the Navratna (nine gems) set. Solely relying on word of mouth using no advertisements or retail locations, she soon became a household name amongst many elite class Mumbai homes. Her approach to success was simple. One happy client leads you to several more.

She published her first cookbook, Palak Preparations in 1999. The book listed nearly forty recipes made from palak (spinach). Her recipes ranged from Italian to Chinese and of course Indian. The summer of 2004 saw the launch of her second book, Amar Swad (everlasting taste). On Mother's Day in 2006, Saroj Joshi gave a cooking demonstration to benefit the Friends In Need Foundation, a non-profit charity, at the Institute Culinary of Education in New York City. On the next day she appeared on ITV Live, her third appearance on the show, to talk about the demonstration.

Zee TV featured her in the show “Swayam” showcasing her outstanding career, and showcasing her as an inspiration to career oriented Indian women. ITV Gold USA invited her as a guest on the “ITV Live” show several times, with a standing invitation for more when she returns to the USA. Newspapers and magazines including Mumbai Samachar, Divya Bhaskar and Abhiyan, have written about her.

In 2004, Saroj Joshi received the “Woman of the Year” award from the Mulund Brahmin Mahila Samaj in Mumbai, India. She was honored for setting an inspiring example for women all over by forging a successful career in two fields simultaneously. In that same year, she received an “Outstanding Career Achievement Award” from the Brahmin Society of New York, USA.

In 2008, Saroj Joshi was featured in two episodes of the TV show "Rasme Rasoi" on the channel NMTV, a TV station based in Mumbai, India. Her two episodes featured health food and healthy desserts.

In 2010, Saroj Joshi released her award winning book, ‘Unique Book of Vegetarian Cooking’ with her take on recipes from al over the world. The book was launched through a multi-city book launch tour at Crossword flagship stores in Mumbai, Bangalore, Baroda and Pune. The book has won the prestigious Gourmand World Cook Book Award 2010 for Best Vegetarian Cuisine Book in India. The book received positive coverage from newspapers such as The Hindu, Mid-Day, Indian Express.

In 2011, Saroj Joshi was nominated for award at the Gourmand World Cook Book Awards and the Paris Cook Book Fair in Paris, France.